Prison Break
It was night. The cool night air was blowing through the area. For nighttime, it was proper temperature. No such thing as Global Warming here. Lying on one of the branches against the giant trunk was a teenager, Jason LaHote. He seemed to be asleep. Sitting in his lap, lying so that she had her head reading between his chest and stomach, as the girl he'd rescued not too long ago, Wendy Marvell. The two were like older brother and sister, and Jason was hellbent on keeping his new companion safe. They were at peace right now. What could ruin this? ... ...*RUMBLE* The pitter-patter of footsteps could be heard throughout the area; The Rune Knights, the eastern wing of the Magic Council are feared for their ferocious prowess in battle. However, for the Knights to attack around this place was something out of the ordinary. Screams were heard throughout the areas, as the Knights slaughtered the townspeople. It turned out that after the Grand Magic Games, the Magic Council had become more and more corrupt- it wasn't a fair ruling system now; it was a corrupt and disgusting organization. A trio of knights quickly noticed the two- and suddenly, they began to advance forward. They realized who this little girl was- the Sky Sorceress. With her Sky Dragon Slayer Magic under the control of the Magic Council, almost anything could be possible. Jason, however, was not a sound sleeper. He stirred, looking down at the group below. Earthland's Magic Council...he sighed, and gently shook Wendy awake. "Climb higher. Now." He ordered, before jumping down from the tree, landing in the center of the rune knights. His cleaver was already drawn. "Tell me what you're here for." It seemed that this person was...different. No magical aura eminating from him; no nothing. Thus, he was basically harmless, right? The knight at the center advanced forward with an unflinching walk, before glancing down at Jason. His gritted teeth could be seen through the mesh of his full-head helmet. Of course, he had something planned. A faint magical aura was released from the knight as he questioned sternly, "...The person who we're searching for is in your protection, right?" He glanced away. "...Some time ago, we heard of rumours about a sole scientist managing to perform the impossible and create life. ... If that is case, it is our duty to take the results back and experiment further. The safety of Fiore will benefit from our results." Without a word, Jason swung his giant cleaver down, cutting the man straight in half, perfect symmetry. He pulled the blade out, the blood gleaming in the moonlight. He raised his hand. "Come at me together. Or make your escape." Swoosh. With a single, fleeting motion, three of the knights dispersed with Speed Magic, hovering in the air. Like they were a batallion, this trio shot down like a meteor descending to earth, charging after Jason, swinging their blades wildly at the young man. "Fire Bullet!" From the tip of their blades, two knights released a large, bullet-like stream of fire towards their target; while the third one leaped upwards, attempting to cleave down upon Jason with tremendous force. Jason slashed the air, using brute force to release a simple blast of wind that put out the flames, before launching himself forward, showing he was speedy even without speed magic. In two seconds, he had cut all three of the knights down, watching as the pieces of their bodies landed in different areas, before landing on the ground again. "Anyone else?" Seven more quickly arrived with short bursts of Speed Magic; though suddenly, one member dissapeared in a flash of light. "...We may have underestimated you, boy." A knight spat through their visor; it was clear that this particular group wouldn't stop until they'd killed this orange-haired menace. "Hell Prominence!" The knights shouted in unison; releasing their magic seals and building up purple energy in front of them. Such energy was subsequently released into a large, long and powerful laser-like beam that tore through the area- arching and curving to meet their destination- all attempting to blast Jason at the same time; converging to form an enormous explosion that shocked the very area itself. Meanwhile, the last Rune Knight dashed towards the tree; their panicked breaths could be heard from their visor- no, it was clear now. This knight was female. Grabbing ahold of the tree trunk, she shook it like she was attempting to get a cat down. "...Come out, come out." She sighed. "...Please? It makes my job easier." Wendy, due to her recent creation and treatment at the hands of the scientist, was very timid and only hastened to climb up the tree. Jason extended his sword, blocking the blast of energy effortlessly. "I didn't intend to waste precious energy on this. But you all....such useless scum." He raised his sword to his side, and it began to glow blue. "I will wipe you from the face of this planet." He moved his blade back, releasing a massive blast of energy, before swinging it forward, the energy guiding with the blade, and release it in a large beam of energy. All of the Knights seemed to...explode. It was rather difficult to describe; but they all erupted in a shower of lovely scarlet. The ground had been razed and the intensity of the blast caused the sky to darken; there was seemingly no more Rune Knights to slaughter. The woman continued to shake the tree desparately, calling out, "Come out, please! It's part of my job- such is business! C'mon, I've got a little brother to feed..." Suddenly, a brilliant plan erupted within her mind; she climbed up the tree after Wendy before cornering her on a branch. Due to the gaudy armour she was wearing, she couldn't maintain her balance for very long. "Stay...right..." She made a small jump, grabbing Wendy in her arms. "Ther-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The tree branch snapped as the woman, still holding Wendy in her arms, made a sharp scream and collapsed to the ground. Jason turned around, and looked at the fallen girl, who was still clutching Wendy. This was one...pitiable. "Return the girl to me, and flee." He raised his cleaver over his head, resting it on his shoulder. "I can easily kill you while keeping her alive." The woman glanced around; she could try and fight him- but she couldn't leave Wendy unattended; then she would have failed her mission. It was like a Morton's Fork decision; dammed if she did, dammed if she didn't. Suddenly, the woman's grip tightened upon Wendy; in the distance, a faint rumbling sound could be heard- though a few seconds later, an entire batallion of Rune Knights surrounded the three; swords drawn and all. One of them demanded, "...We have you surrounded." That was a no-brainer. "...Surrunder quietly and we may consider sparing you." The woman's eyes widened as she heard those words as they flickered, glancing at Jason and then Wendy in doubt. This would be the straw that broke the camel's back, metaphorically speaking. Jason's eyes flickered to them. "You all are simply children. There is nothing to stop me from taking out all of you in one attack." Wendy, who was still being gripped too tightly by this woman, was reassured by these words. She'd be safe with Jason around. The woman hesitated for a few minutes, before pulling out a gun and raising it to Wendy's head, pressing it against her earlobe. It was clear by her shaking hand and quivering tone of voice that she wasn't too sure of what to do. "...I-If you resist," her trigger finger was shaking and she lost her grip a few times. "...I WILL kill her. U-Understand...?" "Cute." Jason murmured, letting his sword vanish. "So unsure of your abilities, yet you count yourself among this number here. As you wish." He stood still, but his eyes flickered to Wendy as if saying "Be patient." The woman sighed and threw the gun to the ground. "...Thank God..." she couldn't do it. There was no way in high hell she could kill a child. The rest of the Rune Knights surrounded Jason and Wendy; they hand-cuffed them and marched them into the large wagon. The woman could only look on as her peers drove off; in her mind, it was all becoming clear; the Magic Council was corrupt; and she was technically the bad guy in all of this. ---- At the Magic Council, an elderly man addresses the Rune Knights. "My faithful soldiers..." The man looked out to the thousands of soldiers standing in front of him. "It seems that our search for the Sky Sorceress has finally become complete. With this, reverse engineering the technology used to create this copy is within our grasp! There...I, no, our goal will become a reality; to create an army of those who possess the dragon power! Now...Knights, return to your stations!" "Yes, my Lord!" The answer bellows through the halls of the Magic Council. The knights run to their posts. ---- The woman who kidnapped Wendy glanced around, before grabbing a laptop which had some important files on it. She quickly gave the laptop a few minutes of power, she booted it up. It ran on Flindows XD and was quite the technological dinosaur compared to modern equipment, but it had Largehard Office so it was acceptable. As soon as flindows finished booting up, a system message appeared on the screen notifying her that new sources had been added to the tagged video cache, and if she would like to check it. She had never seen a system message like this before. She knew that snooping was generally taboo, but curiosity overcame her. Vivian was taken to a hidden file that required a password to access it. Rolling her eyes, she moved her cursor to X out of the program when suddenly, something typed the password in for her. A bit frightened at this point, she was sucked into the screen. There were four videos, entitled HER.avi, ONE.avi, TWO.avi, and WHY.avi. All four thumbnails were pure black. Curious, Vivian clicked on the file entitled HER.avi. She should have never done that. Seeing terrifying images that were honestly, too difficult to put into comprehensible words, Vivian quickly removed her armour; revealing a stunning figure with deep purple hair and beautiful eyes- this was the figure she spent time checking out in the mirror every day- but that wasn't really important; what was important was she had to atone for all of this. "...What are these people!?" Shutting down the laptop, Vivian began to run for her dear life- right towards the Sky Sorceress' cell. ---- In his own cell, Jason was looking mildly bored. Counting inside his head, he slowly got up. "It's been three hours. They're be low on their guard." With a swift upper kick, be broke the chains connecting his cuffs with ease, and summoning his blade. "Welcome back, Gehaburn." He swung his blade, using pure air force to utterly destroy his cell, inadvertently destroying several others, allowing prisoners to run free. "Thanksssssssssss amigo! Brazil, here I come!" One of them yelled as he ran by. Assuming Brazil was the name of his lover, Jason jumped through the roof, landing on what appeared to be the second floor. Some of that noise was bound to attract attention, which is what he wanted... Vivian gritted her teeth. If she got there ASAP then maybe...she would have a chance of freeing Wendy. Focusing on the path ahead, she rushed up the stairs at blistering speeds, before reaching the second floor in no time flat. ...*CRASH!* Without any prior warning, she was sent careening back down the stairs at high speeds from impact. Barely catching herself via the way of thrusting her hand at the intersections which were situated between the guardrail and the stairs, Vivian quickly stood to her feet, at an utter loss for words. She suddenly realized who this was. "...You!" she pointed at Jason, completely surprised. Jason blinked, noticing her surprise. "Ah, that's right. It's you." He raised Gehaburn above his head, and placed it to her neck, so the indented tip fitted perfectly around her neck like it was meant to be there. He smiled. "Take me to Wendy." Vivian froze up; though she didn't want to even attempt to stop him, she couldn't even if she thought about it. She frowned at this situation, before dissapearing in a blink of an instant, quickly reappearing behind him, her slender fingertips wrapping around his arm. "Come on." Almost as if instinctually, she began to drag the orange-haired man towards the third floor, up the stairs, they moved almost as if they were floating on air like ghosts. She sighed, informing him bluntly, "...I'm sorry. Just...I'm sorry for what happened." "Words in this situation are meaningless." Jason replied. "Your actions will determine your remorse here. Wendy has been through more than you know. Whatever amount of harm that has come to her, I will inflict upon you, beware of that." His tone was like ice as she led him through the corrdior. Vivian scowled at Jason's words. "I am well aware of that feeling. If anyone hurt my little brother, I would tie them up in a sleeping bag with bricks and toss them into the sea." Breaking from that, she attempted to reassure him, "Don't worry, she's just a little further..." Suddenly, the two hurriedly reached their destination. In a lone prison cell was a rather scared looking blue-haired girl with sharp canines. There was no doubt about it- this was the Sky Sorceress. Vivian quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out a card key, which she swiftly swiped across a slit in one of the bars, causing it to slowly open. "...Just as promised..." Wendy was sitting on the bunk, curled up in fear, her head resting on her knees. Seemingly vanishing from where he was, Jason was at Wendy's side in an instant. He picked her up into his arms, his eyes blazing. "You can calm down. I'm here, it's fine." Wendy looked up, at him. She wasn't crying, but had evidently just finished, her eyes were red and puffy. She buried her head in his shoulders, too scared to speak, but relieved to have him with her. Jason's monoexpression face, for the first time, broke out into active fury. "First the scientist...and now the Magic Council....I am going to raze this prison to the ground." His head shot toward Vivian. "What will you do? You are technically an accessory to our escape." Vivian rather surprisingly calmly responded, "Well, I don't see why I don't just go with you two." She said it so calmly it was rather scary. "...Now, I keep getting lost around here. So...I guess we'll just have to smash our way through until we escape." She was never horribly bright. Jason nodded. "You have the right idea." Holding Wendy in one arm, he raised Gehaburn. Unfortunately, Vivian was in his way. "Move. Now." Vivian began to panic- moving her arms back and forth like she was a kewpie doll, she leaped out of the way, asking in a frightenened tone, "...What...?" Jason made Gehaburn vanish, and swung his fist, creating a massive amount of air pressure that broke the wall and traveled through it, crashing down several others, leaving a wide, gaping whole in which they could escape. He made Gehaburn vanish, so he could keep a closer grip on Wendy. "We'll escape through here." He gripped Wendy. "Hold on tight." He looked at Vivian. "Can you jump? I'm sure the guards will be here quickly. If you can't, simply climb on my back." Vivian glared at Jason with a completely 'are you serious?' reaction, before crossing her arms and snapping, "...Idiot! Any sane person can jump!" she began to focus on her destination- the door to the outside world. "3...2..." "Unfortunately, you're not sane." Jason replied, leaping out of the hole and, ignoring the wind resistance as he plummeted to the ground and landed smoothly on two feet. He looked up to see how she was making her descent. ...*CRASH* Suddenly, Vivian realized it- she had no way to actually go against the wind resistance. She was like a candy wrapper caught in an updraft. WHAM! Suddenly, the deep purple haired woman fell to the ground face-first with a heavy *THUD*. Truly, it wasn't possible to witness such other levels of failure. "...Daaaaaaaaammit! ...Erm, hey," she called out to Jason. "...Little help...please?" "If you can move, you do not need aide. Wendy takes priority over your needs." Despite saying this, Jason bent down and extended a hand to her. Vivian weakly took Jason's hand, and then, as if automatically, she heaved herself up. It took her the briefest of moments to regain her balance, before clutching her head in pain. "...As they say, it's not the fall that kills you..." she paused. "...But the fall hurts like hell all the same..." "...!!" The time to recouperate was vey much slim to none; as hoardes upon hoardes of Rune Knights appeared in front of the trio. Vivian gritted her reeth, sighing, "...Dammit, not again..." The leader of the pack declared. "...Vivian Starrkewolfe, for assisting criminals, the punishment is...death!" Vivian shrugged her shoulders. "...I honestly must have precognition powers. I KNEW you were gonna say that..." Jason's anger at the sight of these Rune Knights peaked. The ones who had captured Wendy. The ones who had put in prison. Made her cry. He emitted a deep, guttural growl as his sword manifested itself in his right hand, and he lifted Wendy into his left arm, cradling her like one would an infant. "All of you..." Vivian calmly stood back, impressed by what she realized what was about to occur. It seemed like something that wouldn't be not compared by breaking a country with a fart. "...Well, guess I won't be able to fight for a while..." she silently sighed in dissapointment at this fact. The Rune Knights mostly began to attempt to retreat...only with the speed of zombies shambling along. "...Is he serious? Does this stupid kid honestly think he can wipe us, an elite fighting force, out!?" Vivian snarked "...Oh yes, because your track record is oh-so splendid so far?" "...fall to the mighty Gehaburn!" Jason swung his blade, creating a large blue line in the air. His blade vanished, however, nothing happened. Wendy had fallen asleep now, and he held her with both arms as he watched quietly. Nothing had happened. Was his attack a dud? Vivian's eyes widened. "...Wait, what?" She couldn't believe it. Was this person's attack really circumvented or something? The Rune Knight scoffed, "..Hahaha!" laughing in an obviously dastardly tone, he continued, "...is that it? How dissapointing." Suddenly, where the line had been drawn, a bright blue light appeared, before expanding and exploding in a straight like, releasing a blast that was of huge proportions, utterly erasing most of the ground and enveloping the building they had just vacated. The Rune Knights were utterly eradicated as well. "Delayed reaction." Vivian seemed to almost pass out. "...No shit, Sherlock." It was actually kind of sad; the former elite fighting force of the Magic Council which she was actually part of had been reduced to those guys with red shirts you'd normally see in a certain popular science fiction show. "...Y'know, you do realize that soon the Magic Council will take a massive step up in training these guys, right? Then we'll need to become even stronger to continue shattering these fools in an instant like we have been." Jason's eyes narrowed. "Of course. We'll start by training Wendy. Her powers have yet to truly see the light of day, and when she becomes strong, I can breathe easier...until then, we'll affiliate ourselves with you." Vivian smiled and held out her hand. "...I wouldn't call ourselves all hunky-dory for now, but we'll see where this leads, shall we?" She paused. "...By the way, I'm grateful for you two giving me a chance to leave the Magic Council's service..." Truth be told, she wasn't sure if she belonged there at all. Her boss' words echoed in her head, "I SEND YOU TO DELIVER A LETTER AND YOU LEVEL THE ENTIRE DISTRICT? YOU BLEW UP FIFTEEN PROTOTYPE SUBJECTS AND CAUSED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF DAMAGE! I SHOULD HAVE YOUR BADGE, BUT INSTEAD I'M GIVING YOU A PROMOTION TO RUNE KNIGHT! NOW GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" And thus was the story of how Vivian obtained her position. Another companion. First Wendy, now this woman. It seemed he was gaining "friends", but it would be awhile before he trusted this girl. Jason turned to look into the sky, and saw that the sun was rising. He actually smiled, with non-murderous intent. "The Daybreak...how fitting." He turned to Vivian. "I never got your name." Vivian glanced at the dawn that was in full view with a sincere smile on her face. The faded crimson illuminating the sky was truly a rare sight- and not just because she slept in every single day; it was a symbol; an expression of freedom that the three had suddenly gained- escaping the oppression of such a corrupt government. Vivian responded with her view still focused on the sky, "Vivian Starrkewolfe. As you know, former Rune Knight and holder of the entire Rune Knight force's highest arrest record...wrongful or otherwise...and the only officer in the history of the Knights who's ever caused more collateral damage than our budget could cover. Simple as that." "Starrkwolfe...wolfe...wolf...of course you are." He seemed to be musing over something only he understood inside his head. "From here on, we're an independent guild, apart from the Magic Council. We are Akatsuki." END